Apparatus for welding and smoothing seams



INVENTOR .ATTORNEY llt.

' J. L. ANDERSON lhlllllllllllli lvl! Original Filed Ju1y`10,'193'7 APPARATUS FOR WELDING AND SMOOTHING SEAMS v nnnnnnnnnnnnnn nlksn Oct. 17, 1944.

I becauseless fuel is used.

' Petenfed oef. v11. 1944 ArrAaA'rus Foa WELDING ANn l SHOOTHING' SEAMSf Y rooie. L. Anderson, meiner, N. J., sonnoleo A ir Reduction Company, Incorporated, New York,

N.' Y., 'a corporation oi' New York Original application July 10, 1937, Serial No. 152,957. Divided and this application May l, 1940, Serial No. 332.657

the longitudinal seams of tube blanks.

In the older types of tube welding machines .a

'I'hisinvention `relates to apparatus for welding tube blank under ya high-temperature heating agency which progressively melts away A substantial portionsof the opposingyedge faces along the seam and the molten metal comes toygethler in a puddle which solidies to make the weld. With more modern tube welding methods the seam edges are heated by projecting flame jets directly against the edge faces in a manner that produces asubstantially uniform heating andn only supercial melting over the surfaces of the edge faces without allowing time for heat to be .distributed by conduction through the metal.

Such direct heating makes possible much Ahigher speeds of welding and reduces'the heating cost It is an object of invention to provide improved apparatus for Weldingy tubes with direct flame heating of the edge faces of the seam.

- -When operating at the very hi'gh speeds made' possible by direct iiame heating, the seamwise extent of, the heating system is considerable and an accurate control of the positions 'of the edge faces must be -exercised for a substantial dis.- tance along their length. One feature of the invention relates'to the control of lthe positions of theseam edge faces while the tube blank is ad'- vanced by power driven rolls.

Another din'erencle between the old lpuddle weld methods in which substantial quantities of metal are 'melted and sumcient time allowed for a distributienet heat by conduction through the A metahand the direct edge heating with a surface fusion or mere softening of the edge faces, is

that' the heat which soaks back into the body of the tube with puddle welding causes slow cooling of the weld, but the steep temperature' gradient in the metal when welding at high speed with direct flame heating causes a rapid coolingof theweld metal.

With certain grades of steel the slow cooling makes the metal of the weld softer than the body -of the tube, whereas the rapid cooling of the direct flame heating methods makes the weld harder than the remainder of the tube.

In my copending application, Serial No. 152,-

' 957, (Patent N0. 2,249,592, dated July 15,- 1941),

filed July 10, 1937, of which this case is a division, there is disclosed an improvedmethod ofl welding without producing any-substantial change either-way inv the hardness of the f'metal from which the weld is made. It is anobject of this V'invention to provide simple and. emcient apparahereof:

tus bywmoa the method disclosed in said Potent No. 2,249,592 can be carried out.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will. appear or be pointed out as the specification proceeds.

In the accompanying drawing, forming apart 1 is a side elevation. partly diagrammatic and partly'broken away, of tube welding apparatuaembodyingtheinvention.

Figs. 2'and Scare sectional views on the lines 2 2 and 3-4, respectively. of Fig. -1. Y

Fig. 4 is a reduced fragmentary detail view showing alternative roll structure for the welding roll stand of Fig. 3. o

A tube blank which may come direct from forming. mill, and which may be either cold or 3 preheated, enters a roll stand l2 havingfeed rolls 'I4 and I5. vThe tube blank is indicated by the reference character -Il and the welded tube by the reference character I6. o

The upper feed roll I4 has a central iin llwhich extends into the seam and acts as a seam guide in a manner well understood in the art. 'I'he lower feed roll l5 is driven by a worm wheel 20 securedto the axle of the roll l5. and the upper feed roll I4 is driven through meshing gears 2| and 22 fastened to the upper' and lower r'oll axles.

These driving connections to the rolls are similar to thoseof the welding roll stand and will be described somewhat more fully in the explanation of the welding roll. structure shown in Fig. 3.

Beyond the feed roll stand l2, the tube blank I8 passes vbetween cluster rolls, the rst of which are in a roll stand including confining or gathering rolls 24, 25 (Fig. 2) which hold the tube blank with its edge faces in a definite spaced relation orbring the edges closer together depending upon the adjustment of the gathering rolls.

The roll 24 turns on a substantially vertical axle 26 carried by ya frame 28. This frame has a gib base 29 (Fig. 1). which slides in ways on the main frame 30. The roll 25 is supported in a similar manner from a gibbase 3l which slides inthe same transverse ways, and the gibs are adjusted toward andffrom one another bya lead screw -33 having a right-hand'thread in the gib base 29 and a left-hand thread in the gib base 3l One 'end of the lead screw 33 has a square section 35 Vtri-which a wrench or handle is applied to turnV the screw and move `the rolls 24 and 25 closer or further from one another to obtain the desired spacing' of the tube seam edges.

Thisconstruction makes thel rolls 24 and 25 adjustable without affecting the parallel/rela- 2 t tion of their axles and without danger of one roll becoming slightly higher than the other, a condition that makes the tube tend to twist. The lead screw provides an adjusting means of high mechanical advantage. and thus makes possible very accurate adjustment of the positions of the rolls and of the seam edges.

A second set of conning or gathering rolls 91, similar to the rolls 2l and 25, and similarly adjustabia arelocated lust beyo'nd the rolls u, 2s.

For very high speedv welding machines there may be more than two stands of confining or gathering rolls.

During the time that the tube blank It is paSS- ing between the gathering rolls, the edge faces are heated locally. Various heating instrumentalities can be employed to raise the temperature of the edge faces. The drawing shows an oxy-fuel gas torch 39 that is particularly suitable for the purpose.

The rolls 2l, 25 and 91 hold the edges faces of the tube blank in the desired relation to the to'rch 39. lThis is important with direct flame heating. especially when the heating jets are projected at a diagonal to 4the direction of the adjustment. Rolls were formerly thought unsuitable' 'for the purpose because of the substantial length ofthe seam edges within the heating zone at one time,

and the absolute necessity of accurate adjustmentof the edge faces with respect to the diagonall substantially uniform heating over the full widths of the faces.V

Immediately beyond blank I6 passes through a welding roll stand 42 having welding rolls 4l and 4I keyed to axles 4i and I1, respectively. These axles turn in bearing blocks 49 and 49 which are vertically movable in guideways on opposite sides of the frame of the welding roll stand. The upper axle is driven from the lower axle 41 through meshing gears I and 52 (Fig. 3) secured to the axles.

The bearing blocks 43 and 4 9 arevheld in spaced relation. by means of adjusting screws il. These screws are rotated to move the axles l0 and' 41 together or apart to change the pressure which the welding rolls exert on the seam edges when pressing them together. The upper-welding roll M in Fig. 3 has a central groove It into! which a flash 51 or reinforcement can extend when the welding rolls are adjusted to exert sufficient pressure to squeeze some or all of the molten l. is mostly diagrammatic in Fig. i and is merely the. toren u, me tube 4g to be supplied sary to have any groove in the face of the upper welding roll.

Fig. 4 shows an upper welding roll I4' which' has no groove in its face. Even with smooth welding rolls such as shown in Fig. 4 it is possible to squeeze out an inside flash if it becomes desirable to do so. Except fory the lack of a'central groove, the rolls shown in Fig. 4 are the same as those of Fig. 3 though shown onsl smaller scale. When the welding rolls are adjusted so as to produce the flash l1,.that squeezed-outmetal is preferably removed as a continuous operation with the welding. Fig. 1 shows a cutting tool 90 carried by a shoe Il which is held against the outside of the tube Il' above a supporting roll 62 at sumcientdistance beyond the welding rolls so that the metal is cool enough to cut by the time it reaches the tool 69.

Inside flash is removed by a cutting tool 64 carried by a. holder il at the end of a mandrel 89. The mandrel is held atvits forward end by a support I9 fastened to the frame of the 'machine. The inside cutting tool Il operates on the tube while it is traveling through a roll stand 1l which is similar in construction -to the welding roll stand l2 but has smooth-face rolls such as shown in Fig. 4. when the tube is made withv no flash, the cutting tools and mandrel are unnecessary. It is for this reasonjlthat no mandrel v is shown in Fis. 4. i

There are worm wheels I0, 12 vand 19 secured to the axles ofthe lower rolls ofthe roll stands I2, 42 and 1I, respectively. These worm wheels vare driven by worms 1l, 15 and 1l on a common shaft 11. The shaft is driven from a motor 19 through reduction gearing Il. The speed' of the motor can be varied by a speed control device 92. This apparatus for applying power to` the rolls representative of means for driving the rolls at the desired speed. v

The use of power to drive the rolls of the roll stand 19 keeps the-tube traveling smoothly and the thrust against the cutting tools does not have entirely from thewelding rolls through the extended length Y.of tubing between the welding rolls and cuttingltools. The common drive shaft 11 operating the rolls in both of the roll stands and 19 insures equal speed of the I rolls of both stands.

The bottom face of the torch 39 has a longitudinal recess with converging side walls through which jet orifices open, alternate orifices opening through'difl'erent faces of the recess so as to project alternate flame jets at an angle to, but directly against. the oppositeedgefaces of the tube metal from between the edge portions when they are pressed together to make the weld. A flash may also be squeezed out inside of the tube as shown in. Fig. 3. e f

With the intensity of the heating agencies so correlated with the speed of travel of the tube pressure on them. In such a case it is not necesblank. The name jets are directed at angles of approximately degrees to the vertical, as indicated by the diagonal lines in Fig. 2. At the rearward end of the torch ahead of thewelding.

rolls where the edge faces come too close together for direct iiame heating, "fish-tail center-name jets are directed mtu the 10eme seam. such a' torch is disclosed'in detail in -my copending ap.. plication Serial No. 152.957 (Patent No. 2.249.592)

In thev operation of the. invention. the tube blank it, which may be either cold or preheated. isspropelled bythe feed rolls Il and is into and through the passes between the cluster of gathering or coniining rolls 24. 2t and Il. and then into the welding roll stand 42 where the blank is gripped by the power driven welding rolls that assist the feed rolls' in advancing the tube through the machine. The gathering rolls 26, 2g and 81 and the supporting roll l2A are preferably tions of the edge faces of the blank as they idlers, but the rolls infthestand are powerdriven to help advance the tube ii'A against the resistance offered by the cutting tools 8U and M. During the passage of the tube blank under the torch 39, the spacing of the edge faces vfor direct .flame heating is controlled by the gathering or conning rolls. The gathering rolls are shaped to provide such clearance between their` upper portions that the edge regions ofthe tube blank I6 extend beyond the concave surfaces of the rolls 2l, 25 as shown in Fig. 2. Thisconstruction reduces the heating of the rolls, and less heat is lost from the edge portions by having them out of contact with the roll surfaces.

The stationary cutters for removing-'the iiash, and associated features, are claimed in a divi-l sional application, Serial No. 518,711, filed January 18, 1944.

travel past' said heating jets.

i 4.In a tube welding machine, the combina-v tion of a heatingdevice with orificesv disposed to project heatingy jets directly against the separated Vedge faces of a traveling tube blank in diverging directions transversely of the' direction Thepreferred embodiment of the invention has been described, but other embodiments oenbe devised, and some features of the invention can beused without others.

Iclaim: ,Y 1. In a tubegwelding machine with heating `means for projecting high-temperature heating jets directly against the separated 'edge faces of a traveling tube blank along an extended zone of the tube blank to raise the faces f to a welding condition, a welding roll stand immediately beyond the heating means, powerdriven feed rolls ahead of said heating means, and a plurality of roll stands between the feed rolls and the weldingrolls, said stands including confining rolls that contact 4with the portion of the tube blank 'that is within said zone along which Ythe heating jets are projected against the edge faces and at points so spaced along the lengthv of said zone as to hold the edge faces of the tube blank under the heating jets in such 'relation to thbe heating means thatsaid jets are projected directly against the edge faces.

2. A tube welding machine including in combination power-driven feed rolls for advancing a hot or cold tube blank into the machine and into a zone of heating where high-temperature jets are projected against the edge faces of the blank,

Va plurality of roll stands beyond the feed rolls and comprising gathering or'coniining rolls that contact with the tube blank at spaced points intermediate the ends ofthe zone alongwhich the heating jets are projected against the edge faces, to hold the edge faces of the seam in deuite spaced relations throughout the length of said zone of heating, heating means with orices disposed to project heating jets directly against the separated edge faces of the seam within the zone of heating and both ahead of and behind one or -of movement of the tube, confining rolls in conof stands lof. coniining rolls that contact with` the outside surface of th tube blank at spacco points intermediate the ends of that section of the tube blank which is being acted upon by the heating means and lat some distance backfrom the edges to hold the edge portions with the surfaces of theedge faces spaced from one another and exposed to the direct impingement of the heating jets. V l

(i. In a tube welding machine, heating means with orices that direct heating jets transversely in diverging directions, apparatus for advancing a tube'blank longitudinally past said heating and a plurality of-stands of confining rolls that contact with the outside surface of the tube blank at spaced pointslengthwise of the section of the tube blank that is passing the heating means and at some distance back from the seam edges to hold the edge portions with the surfaces ofA theedge faces spaced: from one another and exposed to the direct impingement Y or theheeung iets, eeen of said stands or .oon-

iining rolls including two individual rolls which K' contact .with the tube blank on opposite sides of the seam, a frame holding each oi' said individual rolls, means on'which the frames slide toward and from one another' in directions 'at acute angles to the directions of projection of theheating jets, and a lead screw with rightand left-hand threads for moving the frames. simultaneously to obtain an accurate positioning of iets. e

7. The combination with tube welding appa- `ratus including a feed roll stand, a welding roll Y stand, and power means for driving the rolls inboui or said stands to advance a tube blank,

more .of the .gathering or conning roll stands, t

and welding rolls close behind the zone of heating for bringing the edges together to make the weld.

3.A In tube welding apparatus in which a tube blank is advanced at high speed by power-driven rolls,` and the faces ofthe seam edges are heated to a welding condition by means that project heating jets directly against the separate edge faces of the traveling tube blank for a substantial distance lengthwise of the. seam, the improvement which lcomprises cluster rolls distributed among a plurality of stands and forming passes for the tube blank at a number of points intermediate the ends of that length of the tube blank which is being acted upon by the heating jets, and means for adjusting the cluster rolls oil.`

the respective passes to obtain the desired po'sl- 'l5 of a seamwise-extending welding torch between the stands for projecting high intensity llames against the edge faces of the tube blank, cluster rolls comprising a plurality of rolls in contact with :ne run of the tube blank intermediate the f ends of the torch, said cluster rolls being con-- structed and arranged to contact withy the tube blank around -most of the circumference of said ltube blank and to hold the edge portions with the'areas of the edge faces spaced from -one another and exposed to the direct impingement of the names.

8. In a tube welding machine in which heating jets are projected directly against separated edge faces of a seam of a rapidly moving tube blank to raise said edge faces progressively to a welding condition .by the' time they are brought 'together' in a closing pass, cluster rolls forconthe seam edges with to the heating- 4 a,seo,ese

meting with the section of the tubeI blank that is being acted upon by the heating jets, said. cluster rolls including four or more rolls di- -vided among two 'or more roll stands and forni--y ing successive roll passes for holding and conning thetube blank at spaced points intermediate the ends of that section which is being acted upon by the Jets, and means for shifting the positions of the rolls in directions at acute angles to the directions of jet impingement against the edge faces, the shifting lmeans of the successiv'eroll stands being independent o! one another. Y

9. Tube making apparatus to which skelpis supplied after said skelp has been heated to a temperature less than that required for weiding. said apparatus including means for advanc- 15 ing rolls.

10 w, and 'the ront orma pw being shaped to -vthe desired contour of thedtube blank but spaced at their upper` ends so that the edge portions o! the tube blank project for some distance beyond the upper ends o! the or gatherf JAMES L vANDltfasoN. 

